Gah! Smithereens is just so intense

I’m now finished :cry: Miley’s episode was intriguing but I’d rank it last out of the 3 if I had to. Smithereens is just so on point with everything to do with social media.

Overall, aaahhh, good but...

 

Smithereens is clearly the best of the three. The part where the tech company were able to say to the FBI/police 'actually we know all this about the suspect already' was by far the most unsettling tech part of it and that wouldn't even really register in a Season 2 or 3 Black Mirror episode. Ending was incredibly intense

and the fact they didn't show who died partly felt like a copout even if it did allow them to have that scene where everyone just glances at their phone before continuing on with life as though it didn't matter

. In terms of conversations that can be started from it though, it's basically yet another installment of 'people looking at phones and telling megacorps everything about themselves all the time is bad, k', and while I can empathise with Moriarty-boi (unfortunately can't see him as anything else), I couldn't really sympathise with him.

 

The other two, they were good TV but not really Black Mirror, in that they didn't really lean into the technology angle all that much and played both plots really safe.

 

Striking Vipers...

 

Actually, besides that, the best thing I can say about it, and I do mean this, is that it should start a good number of conversations over what it means to really have experiences as VR becomes more common. And how gender and sexuality will become more genderfluid when technology progresses far enough that it's feasible to masquerade as another identity for a time. And I think that will be really good for society, I know I'd jump at the chance to change my gender or sexuality, to see how it feels. And then there's a final addendum on with it ending on an open relationship, which I thought was really nice for one reason and poor for another. Nice because the fact that some people can accept open relationships and don't need exclusivity to love each other isn't nearly explored enough, and these characters did indeed fall into that from the get-go (she likes meeting strangers, remember). Poor because it ended the episode without really making me think too much on the weight of what the technology means, because there's obviously a darker side to a video game that has as a secondary function virtual sex and that was never even touched on, even with kids in the episode, there's a whole lot of adult fear that could have been done.

 

As for the Miley Cyrus episode, it was fun and all, the Ashley Too thing was funny once delimited, but there's no deeper meaning there besides Miley Cyrus wanting to do a biopic about 'Can't Be Tamed' and some rather unexplored stuff about creating songs from brainwaves over a facade of an 80s-style tweenpop movie.

Haven't got around to them yet, but Idles get a shoutout at one point! Charlie Brooker is a big fan.

Have watched Striking Vipers so far and unfortunately it didn't really hold my interest. It took forever to get going and then I feel it copped out (and off) on the storyline once it did.

Only seen the first two so far but this season's been rather disappointing. The episodes take ages to get going and only seem to make one point.

 

Many phones now have technology to not receive notifications whilst driving too..

I've finished them now and none of them are going to be remembered as classic episodes imo. The Smithereens one was okay but lacked that spark of something to make it truly special, it was all signposted clearly and played out exactly as you would expect. The Miley Cyrus one was kinda ok too but didn't feel very Black Mirror, more like a kids film or something!

Only seen the first two so far but this season's been rather disappointing. The episodes take ages to get going and only seem to make one point.

 

Many phones now have technology to not receive notifications whilst driving too..

 

Aye, that being his motivation as the reveal made the whole thing a bit weaker than it otherwise could be. It makes his issue with Smithereen personal to him. But surely the Black Mirror thing to do, and the more pressing issue, is that Smithereen knows so much about its users that the guy's reason for wanting to speak to the founder should be based in privacy concerns, why are they allowed to have all this information on him? It's RIGHT there, and they missed the point. To make the main player of the episode only sympathetic to people who text while driving?

I've only seen the Miley one atm but I loved it! I get that it's not very Black Mirror in many places though, Charlie Brooker did say it would be divisive and not necessarily what people want or expect from Black Mirror. I quite like it though when episodes deviate a bit, like this or San Junipero, although I think a happy ending is a little different to changing an episode's whole vibe so I can see why not everyone is loving it.

Oh I loved it with San Junipero, but that was special as it was, when it aired, the only Black Mirror episode to have a lighter ending, it was still telling a very unique tech story as well, and after all those dark episodes seeing finally someone in these episodes have a victory, it felt earned, it felt jubilant, coming out of all the horrible endings, to finally have that 'JUST THIS ONCE EVERYBODY LIVES' moment.

 

Thing is, you don't get that when it happens as often as it doesn't. This season, it feels like it was all 50-50 and in actuality, there were no confirmed depressing endings. That isn't to reduce things to a binary on their ending, but when the series started as a way to look at the darker sides of tech, it feels like the episodes are being tamed by executive decisions, ironically when railing against things like that, by doing risky stuff that other shows wouldn't do, is part of what made it so popular in the first place.

Yeah 100%, I think that's exactly why San Junipero was so loved (and why it's the best episode)! This time it was just like eh let's take a risk, I'll see how I feel about the other two when I see them.

Slept on it and I think I liked the Miley episode the most too. It wasn't at all what I was expecting but it was entertaining and I cared for all of the central characters in it too. It's the only one of the three I think I'd watch again.

 

Re the Smithereens one, was there a reason why they couldn't still hear them inside the car by the end? It's bugging me that they thought it looked like a dangerous situation and called the shots when earlier they were able to make more sane decisions based upon the conversations happening in the car - the dialogue in the car at the end would have made it clear what was happening.

I’ve watched Striking Vipers. I’ve tried to avoid information about the episodes, and the only thing I know bits about is Miley’s episode. I certainly hadn’t been expecting that! It definitely threw me back to the more stripped back episodes like Entire History of You and Be Right Back.

 

I don’t feel it really led anyway though and therefore it lacked the usual impact. The premise of the episode is essentially the episode. I do feel that it’s accurate that a game with that freedom would get abused for ulterior purposes but it’s weird a patch wouldn’t be issued (as we had the 7 months later). Literally a really picky detail but.... :kink:

 

Also, polar bear??? Nasty

So disappointed! :( Smithereens was clearly the best, but it did drag on a bit. ://

Smithereens was shit, the message it tried to portray was bullshit too! Just don't text and drive, you can't blame social media! :lol:

I don’t feel it really led anyway though and therefore it lacked the usual impact. The premise of the episode is essentially the episode. I do feel that it’s accurate that a game with that freedom would get abused for ulterior purposes but it’s weird a patch wouldn’t be issued (as we had the 7 months later). Literally a really picky detail but.... :kink:

 

No, I wasn’t keen on that either. As is so common when video games make their way into the plot of a TV show the author shows they’ve never spent any time as a fan of a video game, it absolutely would be found and patched if not intended. The implicit conclusion is that the devs of this game are okay with people banging in their fighting game, which obviously means they’re the descendants of the devs that make all those crappy perverted anime games on Steam.

Well I've watched all of them, here are my thoughts, spoilers will follow so if you haven't seen them yet, please do not read beyond this line~

 

 

 

Striking Vipers - I'm basically in agreement with everyone else here that this one had an intriguing premise of exploring male friendships and how much of it is homoerotic unconsciously and I like that it didn't work when they were out of character because they were too conscious of it, but that was essentially the whole episode, by no means justifying filling an entire hour as the build-up before and after it just dragged on and on, I guess the very drained, drab colours and stilted performance (particularly from Danny) didn't really help, I guess they were going for a vibe like that, but I just found it far too soap opera-esque for my tastes with a happy ending that felt a bit forced. Some interesting topics for sure, but didn't fully work for me.

 

Smithereens - This was much better, very gripping crime drama-esque thriller when it got going. It made a lot of subtle statements about humanity's reliance of technology too that I think it does very well, like social media upper management being better at finding out information about the person than law enforcement, the desensitisation to reports of violence that people just take a look at it and move on and there was definitely religious overtones going on with Bauer and 'God Mode' etc. The problem? It was just so surface level in the actual technology part, it was an ordinary social media account, none of the messages felt like they were new and the 'pay off' was a complete anti-climax as there wasn't any ulterior motive revealed, it played out as expected and...yeah, texting while driving is bad, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that. It's basically 'What if Phones but too much?' and the sort of thing that opens the show to parody, I also didn't get why they made it ambiguous as to what happened to the man at the end (and the daughter for that matter) as it seemed pretty obvious? :unsure:

 

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too - ARGH, This was easily the biggest disappointment of them all because parts of it really did promise some excellent concepts, but they completely mucked it up with that final act. The concept of technology basically used to turn pop stars into literal robots and using brain technology to produce pop songs without their consent so they're literally slaves to their contracts is a brilliant one (even though the virtual popstar felt very late, we've had CGI resurrected actors in movies already so didn't feel new) I wish they'd spent more time on it, but no, in the second half, it decided to turn into a Nickelodeon movie, I groaned so much at the snarky robot sidekick, knocking out the bad, evil guys and stopping the big bad boss at the last possible minute :/ And the ending with her in a new image and with Jack as her guitarist (not in prison for dangerous driving or anything) that's Sue Sylvester in the Glee finale levels of bullshit :lol: What a complete farce coming from a show that's been so intelligent and cynical in the past, the sisters didn't feel properly fleshed out either and they suffered from a plot that was far too overstuffed, it should've focused just on the pop star and not had a ludicrously happy ending, even the Waldo Moment got that right. I just get angrier the more I think of this and how much wasted potential it had, instead it's easily one of the worst episodes. FLUSH.

 

 

So yeah, not too good overall. I'd put Bandersnatch above all of these as well as most if not all of Seasons 1-4. I'm not gonna lost hope in it completely yet, but this really is just confirming that the gritty, sadistic, relevance that's persisted in all of the episodes is becoming diluted in favour of happy endings and Hollywood storylines, and while I'm sure it was inevitable with Netflix and all, it's sad to see with a show that initially was the complete opposition of that :(

No, I wasn’t keen on that either. As is so common when video games make their way into the plot of a TV show the author shows they’ve never spent any time as a fan of a video game, it absolutely would be found and patched if not intended. The implicit conclusion is that the devs of this game are okay with people banging in their fighting game, which obviously means they’re the descendants of the devs that make all those crappy perverted anime games on Steam.

Charlie Brooker is actually a huge video games fan!

Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too - ARGH, This was easily the biggest disappointment of them all because parts of it really did promise some excellent concepts, but they completely mucked it up with that final act. The concept of technology basically used to turn pop stars into literal robots and using brain technology to produce pop songs without their consent so they're literally slaves to their contracts is a brilliant one (even though the virtual popstar felt very late, we've had CGI resurrected actors in movies already so didn't feel new) I wish they'd spent more time on it, but no, in the second half, it decided to turn into a Nickelodeon movie, I groaned so much at the snarky robot sidekick, knocking out the bad, evil guys and stopping the big bad boss at the last possible minute :/ And the ending with her in a new image and with Jack as her guitarist (not in prison for dangerous driving or anything) that's Sue Sylvester in the Glee finale levels of bullshit :lol: What a complete farce coming from a show that's been so intelligent and cynical in the past, the sisters didn't feel properly fleshed out either and they suffered from a plot that was far too overstuffed, it should've focused just on the pop star and not had a ludicrously happy ending, even the Waldo Moment got that right. I just get angrier the more I think of this and how much wasted potential it had, instead it's easily one of the worst episodes. FLUSH.

 

I knew I had reservations about how swiftly and shittily it was resolved but you vocalised that all very well. I hoped when the robot was delimited it would get all existential and start down a path of AI rights and how she's different from the human pop star but to just act as a sidekick...

 

Charlie Brooker is actually a huge video games fan!

 

I don't actually doubt that. Like materially, the episode isn't affected but sex being possible between players in online games has some really weird implications (imagine a CoD or FIFA where this is possible) and a host of parenting liability issues. If you think about it, it just doesn't work as a concept. Would have only needed a few changes really (it's an 18+ rating, Karl cagily refers to some past controversy when he hands over the game, your kid can't play it, might have made the episode darker but it did need that), it's just those little details.

I liked all three episodes but Nothing in this season of Black Mirror came close to the levels of quality of San Junipero, Nosedive or USS Callister tbh.